This was sent to me today:
I want to let you know that PG&E and California’s other two big utilities are trying to make it harder for more home owners to go solar.
But, we’re not going to let them win. The solar movement is too big and too important to be stopped by a few utilities.
These proposals will not impact anyone who has already gone solar. But I want to keep you informed, because I know many SolarCity Ambassadors are passionate about these issues, and because we need your help to win this.
On Wednesday, solar supporters like you will be at a fun, positive rally outside PG&E to let them know Californians’ ability to go solar is not negotiable.
Save Rooftop Solar Rally
Wednesday, October 14th at 12 pmOutside PG&E Headquarters
77 Beale Street
San Francisco, CA 94105By December 31st of this year, the California Public Utilities Commission is expected to decide whether to adopt PG&E’s proposal. It is important for the CPUC to know how the people feel about their right to go solar. If you can’t make it to the event, be sure to sign the petition to let the CPUC know where you stand.Thank you for being a SolarCity Ambassador. You can be the hero in California’s energy revolution.
Sincerely,Lyndon Rive, CEO
SolarCity
Except the utilities aren’t making it harder to go solar. I see nothing in the proposals that would make it harder to install solar on your rooftop. The proposals do two things:
Change the rate you get paid for electricity from 15c to 8c. I don’t think it is reasonable to expect to be paid for your solar power more than is paid by almost every state in the country.
Higher fixed charges for customers, appears to be for solar only.
Are you forced in California to connect your house to the grid? Or to connect your solar to it? Couldn’t you just put up the solar panels and not tell the utility about it?
Unsubsidized by the common schlub taxpayer implementation of solar is awesome. Ripping off 98% of taxpayers who could never afford the most basic installation is not.
Still … I’ll be installing my 7Kw system soon courtesy of the 98%. Fuck ya’s all. Bwhhaaahahaaahaaaaaaa.
😈
I see nothing wrong with PG&E’s proposal…
Prince Photon will defeat evil power provider because pretty people and happily ever after..
PG&E should refuse to let the protesters use chargers for their cars
or maybe put in some faulty ones.
Looking to the Link for this OP, I came across this:
http://pge.com/en/myhome/saveenergymoney/cleanenergyca/newsroom/article/01.29.15_SolarChoice.page?utm_source=Outbrain%20&utm_medium=Content%20Marketing%20&utm_campaign=solar
showing PG&E support for Solar Energy. I’ve heard, but have not confirmed that some power providers don’t have programs to buy excess solar power from users at all.
From the comments above, GIVEN NO LINK, looks like PG&E is being totally reasonable? Contra would be to pay solar producers more money and pay for this naturally by raising rates to non-solar customers?
Works for me. Go Solar====>or go Broke.
Why do people think they are entitled to have utilities by the energy they are producing?
Nobody thinks that nfs. Those that do think recognize SOCIETY benefits when utilities buy/sell/profit using excess solar energy rather than put another power plant on line.
Have a close friend explain this to you until you get it.
SOCIETY: keeping barely under control a bunch of self centered asshats trying to take advantage of everyone else.
Perkel is whining about a cut from 15c to 8c in what is collected. Excess solar energy is still being collected, so society should continue to benefit, while the energy producers would no longer be collecting more money than paid by the majority of Americans for energy.
So, you agree the issue of entitlement thinking is totally erroneous and weak minded and the product of a fool.
Thank you.
No, he and the other protesters feel they are entitled to force companies to buy their product. The change unfortunately still obligates this, but not at excessive rates.
>So, you…r…thinking is totally erroneous and weak minded and the product of a fool.
hmm…
This obviously comes down to Solar City’s profit margin, if any.
If I recall right, Solar City owns the panels, installs the panels, and maintains the panels, all of which costs money even after the Govt subsidies. Going from 15c to 8c is a 46% drop in monthly revenue.
I don’t know if Solar City can survive this drastic a cut.
No, they also charge the homeowners for the electricity they use, at 15c. So the revenue drop would be much less. They may also be splitting the amounts collected from the excess generated.
Say bye-bye to those sweet subsidies. Time to sink or swim.
And the utilities don’t like unscheduled power surges. Go figure.
They would be justified if it was at peak demand time to where they don’t have to power up more capacity.
The subsidies for oil, gas, coal, nuke continue.
whats needed 40 years ago is an increasing carbon tax. The nice combo of regulation and free market.
Who could possibly disagree?
Taxes are always the answer with stupid liberals.
Numbskull.
“The threat of a sudden EMP attack that causes a widespread catastrophe is certainly nothing new. Consider this Cold War era quotation from a widely-read and highly-respected publication more than 30 years ago: “The United States is frequently crossed by picture-taking Cosmos series satellites that orbit at a height of 200 to 450 kilometers above the earth. Just one of these satellites, carrying a few pounds of enriched plutonium instead of a camera, might touch off instant coast-to-coast pandemonium: the U.S. power grid going out, all electrical appliances without a separate power supply (televisions, radios, computers, traffic lights) shutting down, commercial telephone lines going dead, special military channels barely working or quickly going silent.” — from “Nuclear Pulse (III): Playing a Wild Card” by William J. Broad in Science magazine, pages 1248-1251, June 12, 1981.
The situation would be much worse today than in 1981 due to our profound and ever-increasing dependence upon electricity and electronics for the basic maintenance of our lives. In addition, the last remnants of the pre-electrical infrastructure, and the knowledge of how to use the components of that infrastructure, is slowly and completely disappearing. Some people have said that the long-term loss of the power grid would send us back to the 19th century. ”
http://futurescience.com/emp/emp-protection.html
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” (Thomas Sowell)
Rooftop solar could be the only thing that keeps us out of the 19th century or the 19th nervous breakdown. For the bureaucrat, who cares.
ALSO: “The gravest danger posed by grid-tie solar power systems are the solar panel systems that are only grid-tie, with no internal transfer switch to allow solar power to be used by the home when the grid power is down. These systems will reduce your electric bill while the the main power grid is working, but that is ALL that they will do. It is very unfortunate that these have recently become the most popular kind of solar power system. If you have a solar power system that goes down when the power grid goes down, you must be aware that your solar panel system will not protect you from EMP, solar storms, cyber-attacks or even ordinary power outages from hurricanes and other storms. All that these common solar panel systems are good for is reducing your electric bill when the power grid is working. This has become such a enormous problem that some companies are now specializing in retrofits to make a solar panel system into a true backup power system. Nuclear EMP poses an additional danger to solar power systems since nuclear EMP can destroy all of the components of an unprotected solar power system. This includes the solar panels, since the solar panels are just semiconductors that are open to the sky. Total EMP protection of a solar panel power system is possible, though, and need not be terribly expensive.
Even though solar storms primarily affect the power grid, customers can communicate the importance of EMP and solar storm protection to their local electric utilities. Devices such as the SolidGround system made by Emprimus can be installed by local electric companies on all of their large transformers that are connected to very long lines.
Although a major electromagnetic disturbance that would destroy large parts of the electrical grid is almost inevitable in the next century, it is important to keep things in the proper perspective. There is a reasonable chance that people will come to their senses in time, and have the electrical power grid protected before such an event happens. Although a hardened power grid does not seem likely in the near future, the dangers to the power grid are becoming much more widely known.”
http://futurescience.com/emp/emp-protection.html
You can harden your own system inexpensively and all they want to do is make it more expensive and less dependable. That will create more demand for service calls.
Good info——–Marc?
Seems to me the point of a solar system is to be an ALTERNATE power source, not a back up—its the grid that is supposed to be the backup. Nuclear Exchanges not included.
I’d go solar 10 years ago, but my property is totally shaded. Can’t grow vegetables either.
Pros and Cons to all we do.
Then move. You can’t claim global warming is the worst thing ever, and then make excuses like that.